4 ms·

This is still being run by the non-profit, so I suspect that these can go into ongoing Wikimedia operating costs. They're incredibly efficient for the scale the

by arsome 5y ago

This is still being run by the non-profit, so I suspect that these can go into ongoing Wikimedia operating costs. They're incredibly efficient for the scale they operate at and I'd say this might improve things even further. The less reliance on giant donation banners, the better.

jon-wood 5y ago
Wikipedia doesn’t rely on giant donation banners - the Wikipedia foundation had $180M dollars available at the end of 2020, and an annual hosting cost of $2M/year. The vast majority of there expenses are $54M/year of salaries, which I doubt are focused on Wikipedia itself. If you want a charitable cause to donate to find one that needs the money.
- bawolff 5y ago
  Ah yes, all those servers can just putter off by themselves without any attention at all. For a site called hacker news, its a wonder that people think system admins are a superfluous job, totally unnessary at scale* * and yes im aware that wmf employees a lot of people, most aren't sysadmins, and some are more critical than others. I just think its rediculous people think that servers just run themselves and hosting is the only core cost.
  - fragmede 5y ago
    Psh, how hard could it be. They only do 21 billion page views a month; 39 million edits, register 264k new users, and have a data change of 23 GiB. Free account at Wix.com ought to do it for hosting costs. jk, it's fascinating how critical people get with how other people spend their money when asking for donations. When was the last time HN took a close look at how Johnathan Ives spends his proceeds?
- ryan_lane 5y ago
  If you're going to assert that the expenses aren't focused on Wikimedia's services, you should have proof that backs that up. The foundation is quite transparent about their operations, and as a former employee, I can attest that what they provide publicly matches my experience internally. You could complain about how they're using some of that money to support the projects (the community teams historically have produced relatively little of value), but it's expensive to pay for a highly experienced engineering department, legal department, etc. For a site with the level of reach they have, they do a very good job of doing it with a relatively low cost.

by arsome 5y ago

jon-wood 5y ago

Wikipedia doesn’t rely on giant donation banners - the Wikipedia foundation had $180M dollars available at the end of 2020, and an annual hosting cost of $2M/year. The vast majority of there expenses are $54M/year of salaries, which I doubt are focused on Wikipedia itself. If you want a charitable cause to donate to find one that needs the money.

bawolff 5y ago
Ah yes, all those servers can just putter off by themselves without any attention at all. For a site called hacker news, its a wonder that people think system admins are a superfluous job, totally unnessary at scale* * and yes im aware that wmf employees a lot of people, most aren't sysadmins, and some are more critical than others. I just think its rediculous people think that servers just run themselves and hosting is the only core cost.
- fragmede 5y ago
  Psh, how hard could it be. They only do 21 billion page views a month; 39 million edits, register 264k new users, and have a data change of 23 GiB. Free account at Wix.com ought to do it for hosting costs. jk, it's fascinating how critical people get with how other people spend their money when asking for donations. When was the last time HN took a close look at how Johnathan Ives spends his proceeds?
ryan_lane 5y ago
If you're going to assert that the expenses aren't focused on Wikimedia's services, you should have proof that backs that up. The foundation is quite transparent about their operations, and as a former employee, I can attest that what they provide publicly matches my experience internally. You could complain about how they're using some of that money to support the projects (the community teams historically have produced relatively little of value), but it's expensive to pay for a highly experienced engineering department, legal department, etc. For a site with the level of reach they have, they do a very good job of doing it with a relatively low cost.